Too many bloggers donโt have a clear blogging strategy. They just jump from one task to another, trying out the latest ideas theyโve heard aboutโฆ and never getting far.
If that sounds like you, donโt feel bad. Even among professional business-to-business marketers, only 65% (just over a third) actually have a documented blogging strategy.
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Maybe youโve tried getting strategic with your blog in the past but it all seemed overwhelming: getting your head around monetization and traffic and everything else that goes into starting a blog and eventually making money from it.
Or maybe you tried to get clear about a content strategy, but all your plans fell apart as soon as you got busy and failed to find time to write.
Today, Iโm going to break down creating a blog strategy for you. Weโll take everything step by step, so you can build your strategy without getting stuck or overwhelmed. Letโs begin by getting clear about what weโre aiming to doโand why.
What is a Blogging Strategy?
A blog strategy isnโt as formal as a business plan. Itโs also not usually focused on the tiny details (like how exactly youโll close each blog post). Instead, your blog strategy is a broad map of how youโre going to reach your blogging goals.
Your blog strategy might deal with a lot of different areas, such as when youโre going to create products, which type of affiliate programs youโre going to promote, the blogging tools you’re going to employ and more.
In this step-by-step guide, Iโm going to focus on one key part of your blog strategyโyour blog content strategy. This is all about the posts (and/or other content) you publish on your blog. Your content links with all other areas of your blog strategy, making it a great place to begin.
How to Create a Blogging Strategy in 6 Steps (& Why You Need One) in 2023
- What is a Blogging Strategy?
- Why You Need a Content Strategy for Your Blog
- Six Steps for Creating Your Blog Content Strategy
- Step 1: Define Your Goals
- Step 2: Pick Your Niche
- Step 3: Identify Your Target Market
- Step 4: Conduct Keyword Research
- Step 5: Create a Content Calendar
- Step 6: Plan Your Monetization Strategy
Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, Iโll earn a commission. Know that I only recommend products and services Iโve personally used and stand behind. When you use one of my affiliate links, the company compensates me, which helps me run this blog and keep my in-depth content free of charge for readers (like you).
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Now, for those of you that like to watch & learnโhere’s my video walkthrough of how to create a blog strategy today:
Why You Need a Clear Blog Content Strategy in 2023
Imagine two bloggers. Letโs call them Andy and Bella. Theyโre both blogging in the same niche for the same audience.
Andy doesnโt have a strategy. He intends to publish a new post every Monday, but often gets busy and doesnโt publish anything.
Heโs often unsure what to write, so he just picks whatever topic is on his mind or in the news. He keeps meaning to get started with affiliate marketing, but never gets around to writing the reviews he has in mind.
Bella, by contrast, has a blog strategy. She publishes a new post every Monday without fail, sends a newsletter out every Wednesday, and queues up a weekโs worth of social media updates every Friday.
Through keyword research (and using the right free keyword tool), she knows exactly what articles are likely to help her target audienceโand bring in traffic to her blog. She has a โRecommended Resourceโ section in each newsletter, where she shares an affiliate resource she loves.
After a year, which blogger is likely to succeed? Clearly, itโs Bella โฆ yet, most bloggers behave more like Andy.
Now, Andyโs blog isnโt necessarily going to fail. He might get lucky with a post and get a flood of traffic. Heโll eventually get around to writing some affiliate reviews, and bring in a bit of money.
But his blog is definitely more of a hobby than a business. Thereโs no real momentum toward Andyโs goals.
If youโre more like Andy than Bella, donโt worry. Weโre going to discuss exactly what you need to do in order to create your blog content strategy.
How to Create a Blogging Strategy in 6 Easy Steps
Letโs get your strategy underway. If your blog is already up and running, you may well have already completed the first three stepsโbut I strongly recommend at least reading through them, in case thereโs anything you need to tweak.
Step 1: Define Your Blogging Goals
Before you do anything else, you need to figure out what you want to get from blogging. These blogging goals will inform the whole of your strategy.
Itโs impossible to figure out how to create a successful blog if you donโt even know what โsuccessfulโ means for you.
- Do you want to build a reputation for yourself in your industry?
- Do you want to bring in some money on the side?
- Do you want to raise money for a charity or cause?
- Do you want to earn a full-time living? Take a look at how much bloggers can make & how long it takes to make money blogging, if so.
- Do you want to simply enjoy writing for fun?
All of those are valid goals. You can choose one of them or come up with a different goal that resonates with you.
Once youโve determined your broad goal, start to think about specifics. For instance, letโs say your goal is to earn a full-time living blogging. What does that look like for you?
Maybe you want to make $35,000/year (the median US salary) working only during school hours, for instance. Or maybe you want to make at least $100,000/year, but youโre happy to work a 50-hour week.
Task: Write down your main goal for your blog, using target numbers or figures if it makes sense to do so. You may also want to set a target date.
Step 2: Pick Your Niche
Once youโre clear about your goal, itโs time to pick your niche. If youโve already got a blog niche, pause and think about whether your niche is fully compatible with your goal.
If your goal is to make money (particularly a full-time living), then you want to opt for a niche thatโs easy to monetize. Check out my list of profitable niches to blog about.
However, itโs important not to only pick a niche because you think itโll make money. Unless youโre strongly motivated by money alone, youโll likely want to choose a niche you can enjoy writing about for years to come. For example, I chose to start working on a vegan food blog this year because I’m personally drawn into the importance of those topics.
If you need a bit of help at this stage of blog planning, check out my in-depth guide on picking a blog niche.
Task: Write down your niche. If youโre not sure, write a list of possible niches and rank them based on (a) what you enjoy most and (b) whether theyโd likely help you reach your goals.
Step 3: Identify Your Target Market
Who is your blog aimed at? Sometimes, your target market (aka target audience) will be indicated by your niche, but most niches will have several possible audiences.
Letโs say your niche is โfitness for beginners.โ Your target market is clearly โbeginnersโโbut youโll want to go further than that. Ask yourself:
- Are you writing primarily for men or women?
- What age are your readers?
- What country do they live in?
- What are their political views?
- How much education do they have?
All these factors will affect the topics you cover, the products/services you recommend, the advice you give, and even the way you word things.
Theyโll also affect things beyond your content, like the color scheme, branding, and the social networks you use to promote your blog.
For instance, one fitness blog for beginners might be aimed at โwomen in their 40s and 50s in Europe, left-leaning, college-educated or higher.โ
Another might be aimed at โmen in their 20s in America, right-wing, high school diploma only.โ These blogs will likely look very different.
Note: You canโand willโhave readers who donโt fit your target market. Thatโs perfectly fine. What matters is that you have a core target market in mind. Other people are welcome to come to your blog too โฆ but youโre not specifically tailoring your content to them.
Task: Write down your target market, incorporating at least some of the above factors.
Step 4: Conduct Keyword Research
The next step is to figure out what keywords people in your target market are likely to use, related to your blogโs niche.
โKeywordsโ arenโt complicated. Theyโre simply words or (more often) short phrases people type into Google.
Use My Free Keyword Research Tool
Try my free AI-Powered Keyword Tool to get dozens of research-backed ideas for keywords & topics to write about on your blog today.
You can probably think of a whole bunch of keywords off the top of your head. For instance, if you blog about knitting patterns, some keywords would be:
- Knitting
- Knitting patterns
- Free knitting patterns
- Dress knitting patterns
- Sweater knitting patterns
- How to knit a Christmas sweater
โฆ and so on.
Keyword research is the process of finding keywords and figuring out which keywords you should base content around.
Essentially, you want to find keywords that (a) have plenty of people searching for them but (b) arenโt so popular that youโll never have a chance of getting your content to the top of Google.
There are loads of techniques and tools you can use to help, and I have a detailed article here with everything you need to know about keyword research and an in-depth guide about how to rank higher on Google too.
Task: Go through my keyword research guide, then list 10 or more keywords you can use to create content.
Step 5: Create a Content Calendar
A content calendar is simply a list of upcoming dates and the content you plan to publish. With your calendar to hand, you can come up with lots of blog post ideas at once, carry out keyword research, and even plan a whole batch of posts.
There are lots of different options for creating your content calendar. Start by using my blog headline generator to come up with a catchy headline & get inspiration on an angle to take your article. From here, many bloggers use a simple spreadsheet for content calendar management. Others use a task management system like Asana.
You could even use a sheet of paper. What matters is that you plan what youโre going to post when, ahead of time.
Your content calendar can include more than just blog posts. You might want to include email newsletters, guest posts, and any other content youโd like to create on a regular basis.
You could even plan to create more in-depth free resources, perhaps once a month, or once a quarter.
Itโs also a great idea to include content promotion on your calendar, as this forms part of your blog marketing strategy.
It could be as simple as planning a few social media posts to share your content, or a list of who to email about specific pieces of content.
To make your content planning faster, you might want to choose a particular theme or type of post for different days or weeks.
For instance, you might have a โbeginnersโ post every Monday and a โtop tipsโ post every Friday, or you could always have an โexpert roundupโ post the last week of each month. Then, when you’re ready to dig into the writing process, be sure to use my blog title generator and free paragraph rewriter tools.
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Task: Plan your upcoming blog posts for the next month, using the keywords you researched in step 4. If you can, go further and plan the emails youโll send to your list.
Step 6: Plan Your Blog Monetization Strategy
If youโre hoping to earn a living as a blogger, youโll have thought a bit about monetization when choosing your niche. But nowโs the time to think how best to integrate monetization into your blogging strategy as a whole.
These are some of the key ways that people make money blogging:
- Using affiliate marketing: promoting other peopleโs products/services and receiving commission on sales
- Running advertising: often paid per view or per clickโonly works well if you have a lot of traffic
- Publishing sponsored content: posts written by (or on behalf of) an advertiser, which you get paid to run on your blog
- Creating and selling their own products: often virtual products (like ebooks or software), but physical products are also an option
- Offering services: freelancing, coaching, and consulting are common ones
- Running online courses: often through a platform like Teachable or Udemy
Many bloggers use a combination of methods, though some blogs monetize solely through one method.
Itโs important to think about how you plan to monetize your blog, so you can work this into your content plan.
For instance, if youโre promoting affiliate products, you could write review postsโbut you could also look for opportunities to mention these products in other posts.
Task: Choose one monetization method (that youโre already using or want to use). Look for at least 3 pieces on your content calendar where you could add a section or link that would help bring in more money through that method.
Execute on Your Blogging Strategy with My Free Planner Template
Set aside time this week to form your blogging strategy. Donโt worry about making it perfectโyour strategy isnโt set in stone. You can revisit and modify it based on your real-world results.
Start by getting clear about your goals, niche, and target market. Then, do enough keyword research to plan your next month of content. Make sure you work in some monetization opportunities, as well. You can do all of this with my free blog planner bundle.
Finally, set aside time each week to produce the content youโve planned. (Aim to complete it ahead of your planned publication date, just in case you get sidetracked.) Youโll be amazed by how much you can achieve in just one month.
And donโt worry your blog isnโt yet up and running or if you need some help with setting it up properly. Just head on over to my complete guide on how to start a blog and make money.
Want My Free Blogging Strategy Planner?
Grab my free blog planner bundle (in Google Doc format) today.
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thank you for this
You’re very welcome!
Excellent read. I have a lot of work to do in the upcoming days. You have broken down blogging in such a manner that anyone should be able to launch a blog for their business. Thank you so much.
You’re welcome, Jason! It takes time for sure, but devising a realistic strategy that works for you is a very worthy endeavor ๐
fabulous read must say. I have made a content calendar for next quarter. Just need to work on timings to publish content.
Execution is not an easy task to do and my weak point :(.
Glad to hear you’ve made your content calendar, Bhawana! ๐
Execution takes time, but remember that’s ok!
Very articulate and clear as usual. Thanks Ryan.
You’re welcome, Mohammed ๐
Mate, I love your work, for a complete novice to blogging I find it simple to comprehend yet the information is very powerful and cutting edge to my mind. Keep up the great work and know it is appreciated…cheers
Thanks, Jim! ๐ good luck with your blog
Thanks Ryan! Your posts are always so informative and I get the feeling you took time to plan it out and make it work. I wonder how long does it take for you to make a post, from the very start to the end?
I thought I’d get started on a blog, so I jumped into getting a domain, but I’m now bombarded with so much information and getting overwhelmed… I may have made a decision too quickly just based on all these encouragements online. So I hope I could stick to it and go step by step.
It definitely takes time to find your rhythm, so don’t feel alone in that, Desmond! What you’re looking at today on my blog, is the culmination of years of work coming together that allows me to write & publish content at a pretty quick pace (and I have some help as far as writing/editing for much of my content along the way in my editorial process these days). Be patient and kind to yourself as you’re just getting things up and running with your blogโyou’ll keep making progress if you continue to write & promote your work ๐ Ultimately though, for a ~3,000 word article, that’s usually done over the course of a few days… totaling between 5-10 hours most of the time.
Identifying goals is such an important part of creating a blogging strategy. With this, you’re better able to craft content and utilize it so that it can serve your long-term purposes.
Agreed! Good luck with your blog, Carola ๐
This is excellent advice for a blogger. Do you have one for a corporate blog when the goal is to improve the product’s website traffic by building external backlinks?
Of course! The core strategy should honestly be the sameโI recommend treating a personal blog like a business if you want to grow & monetize it, so all of these principles remain super relevant. Building backlinks will be a natural part of growing any blog… with a budget from an existing business though, you should be able to ramp up things like guest posting and building links.
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